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YES, USE ASTERISKS!To show a break in the text, such as a doodad or a bullet point or large blank space. Replace whatever was there with an asterisk. Keep in mind that not every blank lines shows a break in the text. This will be an extra large blank space or symbol,... more
FOOTNOTES are located at the bottom of a page, with a corresponding indicator like an asterisk, dagger, or number present in the text.Separate the text of the page from that of the footnotes on the bottom by adding a line with three asterisks on it after the text and... more
It's very important to keep all blank pages and note that they are blank by writing "blank page" in square brackets. If you remove them you'll throw off the page numbering. Writing "blank page" lets the reader know that the page is supposed to be blank, and information... more
Sometimes the scanner will translate dust or stains on the book pages to strings of gibberish at the beginnings or ends of page. These should be deleted.Here's an example:*CultureCulture is the way a group of people lives. For example, having a Thanksgiving dinner is... more
When scanning, make sure to retain page breaks. This is a scanner setting. Do NOT retain line breaks.When proofreading, make sure that the page breaks are hard page breaks, which appear either as a dotted or solid blue line with the words "Page Break" in the middle of... more
When volunteerinng as a scanner, make sure to scan the title page. When proofreading, make sure the title page is present. If the book has no title page, the book must be rejected.Here's an example of info you might find on a title page:*Dear Mrs. LaRueLetters from... more
The copyright page is typically found at the front of a book before the text. It includes copyright date, copyright holder, etc.Here's an example of some info you might find on a copyright page:*For Tracy Mack, Brilliant Editor;David Saylor, Impeccable Designer; and... more
No! Please remove all images before you submit your scanned book. You may include image descriptions. They must be written in complete sentences and placed in square brackets. Check out the instructions here.Proofreaders should also make sure they've deleted out all... more
It depends. Proofreaders may choose any book to proofread, just like scanners may choose any book to scan. The time in which your book will be proofread will depend on how well the book is scanned, how long or complicated the book is, and whether or not a proofreader... more
OCR is short for "Optical Character Recognition" and it is a type of software that we require scanners to use. It turns a picture of text into computer-readable text so that our books may be read in different formats.
For quality control, we ask that different people scan and proofread each book. Occasionally we will make an exception for a highly-skilled, experienced volunteer. If you would like to be considered for this exception, please Request Help.
Yes! When you submit your newly scanned version, make sure to put the letters "BSO" in all capitals before the title of the book so that proofreaders know that you're improving an existing copy.Check out this page for more information about BSOs.
If you're having trouble uploading a scanned RTF (Rich Text Format) file, try skipping the step where you input the ISBN the first time. This does mean that you'll have to put in a bit more information manually, but it hopefully will solve the uploading problem. Do... more
You may scan any book you choose, so long as it follows the guidelines on this page. The book should not be in the collection * and must be a physical book that is manually scanned.* See exceptions here.
Yes. Bookshare volunteers must use their own scanner and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. The scanner may have built-in OCR software, or the person scanning may have the OCR software as part of a computer program.